Hands-on Turok: Evolution

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The Dinosaur Hunter returns. Get full details on new game features and more with a hands-on report.

By IGN Staff

The Dinosaur Hunter has returned. Going back to the series' roots, Turok: Evolution is everything that fans loved the first Turok for and so much more. Acclaim Studios Austin, formerly Iguana Entertainment, has been underway with the fourth iteration of the Turok series for roughly two years. The design process has yielded what the developer say is, "The best Turok there ever was." Acclaim demonstrated an early version of the game to members of the press today, and while it has a long way to go, it was enough to prove that Turok: Evolution is on track to provide a solid first-person shooter experience. For fans of Turok, it promises to be the sequel they've been waiting for.

Gameplay When Acclaim designed Turok: Dinosaur Hunter for the Nintendo 64 it had grand ambitions. However, as it quickly found the hardware limited its visions. Many of the ideas were scaled down and some never made it in. Over the course of Turok 2 and Turok 3, Acclaim improved certain elements such as artificial intelligence, weaponry, and gore-factor, but it drifted from its prehistoric roots. With the advent of next-generation hardware such as GameCube, Acclaim decided it would return to its roots that prehistoric gameplay fans loved, and create the best Turok ever. Turok: Evolution is built to cater to fans' expectations as well as all of the lessons that Acclaim learned while creating the three previous Turoks.

Turok: Evolution is a story of origin and even features everyone's favorite main character Tal'Set from the first N64 Turok. The prequel tells the story of how Tal'Set came to be the Dinosaur Hunter, and the story opens with Tal'Set fighting his nemesis Captain Tobias Bruckner in 1886 Texas. The two end up falling into a rift between their world and the Lost Lands, sucking them both into a mysterious new world. Tal'Set, nearly fatally injured, is nursed back to health by the natives of River Village, a colony fighting to escape from the wrath of the evil Lord Tyrannus and his reptilian minions. Tal'Set is initially hesitant to become involved but after discovering that Bruckner, who slaughtered his people, is serving Tyrannus he swears revenge. Thus Turok: Evolution begins sending Tal'Set on a legendary epic quest through dangerous Lost Lands.

The first playable version of Turok: Evolution that Acclaim has shown is still very early, but it has many of the most important elements in place. Levels are extremely large, always branching into new unexpected areas. The developers have done a splendid job of creating an environment that feels right. The jungle area we played featured an uncountable number of towering trees that reacted to wind and swayed gently back and forth. Large dinosaurs such as the stegosaurus and towering brachiosaurus roamed the environment. They were the docile type, of course, and even though they didn't bother us that didn't stop us from torturing them with sniper shots from afar. The foliage isn't just there for eye candy, though. You can shoot them down with your gun, sending them falling onto nearby enemies. The trees react to surrounding geometry too, so you'll see them get caught up on other trees or brace themselves on canyon walls. Acclaim promises that you will be able to use the trees to effectively strategize. You can push back hordes of enemies and pick many off with trees instead of gunfire. Likewise, they can knock trees on you, so you have to keep alert. Admittedly, just wreaking havoc is enjoyable. What better guilty pleasure is there than totally deforesting a jungle and making dinosaurs extinct?

A raptor is about to meet its end in Turok Evolution

Another level saw us fighting inside more futuristic environments similar to Turok 3. The first open area we encountered was filled with gun-wielding reptiles, which took cover behind protracting wall shields. They would peek out occasionally to fire off a shot, while others would storm at you hotheadedly. As Tal'Set, you could do a few things. With enough shots you could shatter the walls they hid behind, risking exposing yourself, or you could take your time and use the walls to slowly pick them off one by one. Once through that mess more enemies would spawn to cause more resistance, but the main objective was to make your way to several switches that extended a bridge over a large gap that impeded your progress. You move over a few bridges and take on another set of wall-protected foes, whereupon you'll finally reach a donut-shaped arena that appears to be the end of the road. As you approach it a platform rises into the center, and on it is a badass boss looking for trouble. To be continued, the level ends with a tease.

Gunning your way through thick forest environments and dark fortresses isn't all you'll be doing in Turok: Evolution, though. Acclaim wants to take you to the skies on the wings of a Pteranodon and that's exactly what you'll be doing in several important missions in the game. The company demonstrated just as many flight missions as it did ground-based. That's because the developer has spent a lot of time on making truly unique flying mechanics, not just some hokey on-rails sky bound mission. When you're on the Pteranodon everything takes place in third-person view. The natives have equipped the birds with cannons and missiles (remember, this is a fantasy world) so you'll be engaging in all-out dogfights in the sky with other high-flying enemies as well as air-to-ground combat. You'll have a set of crosshairs for aiming and even the ability to lock-on to other enemies. The control is a bit hard to pick up at first, but nothing too advanced. The L and R triggers are used for rotating your bird sideways and turning sharply, and there are buttons for accelerating and braking, but it's subtle. Mostly, it's just properly using the analog stick to steer.

Players can soar atop the Pteranodon's back and take out baddies

Flying the Pteranodon feels very much like you would expect it to. Acclaim has implemented a unique gravity system that accurately reflects what it would be like soar through the air with wings. As you dip downward you will accelerate and the Pteranodon's wings will fold back. There's a particular area where you descend almost vertically down a waterfall. You pick up an incredible amount of speed and must dodge rock formations and foliage along the way. It's quite a rush and is one of the many things you'll do on the back of the Pteranodon. You will chase your foes, also on the backs of prehistoric birds, through temple ruins and around towering rock spires. At first sight we thought the concept could just be a gimmick, but Acclaim Studios Austin has truly made it an important gameplay feature and a refreshing break from the first-person gameplay action. Unfortunately, you won't be able to fly too high above the worlds; you'll be capped off by a ceiling. Still, at the highest levels dinosaurs will look about the size of a dog. So, it's hardly anything to complain about.

Weapons

No Turok game would be worth its weight if it didn't have its supply of dangerous yet delightful weapons. You're going to have to check back to IGN later on for a complete list of weapons because Acclaim is keeping the total rundown a secret for now. However, if the tools of destruction we did see are any indication, Turok Evolution is going to continue the franchise's proud legacy of gruesome and out of this world weaponry. The Fusion Cannon and ChronoScepter from the original game will soon be joined by guns like T:E's Swarm Bore in the videogame weapons Hall of Fame.

Even the low-level guns will give gamers plenty of bang for their buck thanks to Turok Evolution's system of upgrades and powerups for weapons. The basic pistol can be enhanced so that with a touch of a button it transforms into a silenced and scoped long range sniper weapon. You'll actually see the gun transform with the scope and silencer popping and moving into their places. Poison is put to good use thanks to the poison tipped arrows and a little something we're calling the Remote Spider of Death, but more on that later. With the poison arrow and bow you'll be able to quietly stick enemies with a lethal dose of gut wrenching poison that will gradually make them sick to their stomachs and then keel over dead. As soon as you land the arrow, the enemies will still be able to fight but within two seconds they'll let their guard down, double over and start hurling their dino-alien-warrior lunches all over the ground. Then they die.

The T:E shotgun has been redesigned with a shiny golden model with a circular magazine near the end of the barrel. The "streetsweeper" second function introduced in Turok Rage Wars, allows you to load up to four shotgun shells into one all powerful shot and clear the room of evil. Likewise, Tal'Set has a close range weapon that's best described as a tomahawk club. Using the secondary function you can switch between using the blunt side of the weapon and the bladed side for more of a chopping effect. We also caught glimpses of a conventional grenade, which will no doubt have some upgradeable features, a basic flamethrower, some strange purple energy weapon and a truly bizarre sponge cheese transforming cube weapon that we honestly couldn't utilize correctly. The sponge-cube would stick to walls but perhaps in this early version of the game, its effect hadn't been added yet.

The environments in the game are huge

The most impressive weapon of all, at least of all the ones we were allowed to see, was the Remote Spider of Death (not the final name). Much better than a remote mine, the Spider is thrown on the ground like a mine, but then it transforms into a kind of four legged metallic Face-Hugger that you control from a nearly first person perspective. You can run this little spider around anywhere you see fit, leaving Tal'Set vulnerable of course. The joy comes from the fact that the Spider serves three functions as a lure, a bomb and a poisonous gas sprayer...all at the same time. That is, you can run the spider over near a group of enemies and using its lure feature it will make a noise (sometimes like dinosaur or some other Lost Land critter) that will get the guard's attention, switch to the gas sprayer function and unleash a cloud of green floating poison and then as a grand finale detonate as a full fledged bomb. Each time you deploy it, you have the option of utilizing all three of the Remote Spider's abilities or two or one or even none if you decide to abort the spider's mission. One catch is that it will automatically explode when you unleash its entire payload of poison. This is one weapon that will delight gamers of all shapes sizes and levels of sanity.

Multiplayer A lot of importance has been placed on the multiplayer mode. One of Turok: Evolution's designers hinted that it would be much more blown out than even Rage Wars, which was a multiplayer-specific title. Only one available level was playable, but it demonstrated simple yet effective design. Set amid temple ruins, there was a center court where power-ups could be collected and surrounding two-level complexes where players could hide out or find other weapons. Acclaim has included deathtrap triggers to sway campers from avoiding conflict for very long. In the upper level of one of the buildings, a set of spikes lines the ceiling. Players outside of the building can shoot a large shield to bring the spikes down. It hurts so good. In another area a huge skull is raised high above the ground in a sort of alcove. Players will be tempted into it with the reward of getting a weapon, but if they're not careful their opponents can shoot a switch to send the skull crashing down on top of them. This is one of many specially designed levels in the game, and Acclaim promises a truckload of options including capture-the-flag, and, yes, something to do with monkeys.

Graphics Turok: Evolution looks just as you would expect a next-generation Turok to look. Much of the art style is the same, but it is brought to life thanks to more vibrant textures and, finally, a fog-less environment. Sure, Acclaim is still using fog, but only for atmosphere. What we've seen is a very early version of the game. Lighting isn't even properly implemented and much of everything is just a first-pass. Over the course of the next seven months a lot will be improved. That said, though, everything looks pretty good. Worlds aren't especially high-polygon, but they are huge and feature some fairly detailed textures. Most impressive is the presentation. The lush jungle area, for instance, was filled to the brim with trees and green brush. The trees gently swayed in the wind and when dinosaurs ran through the thicket it rustled and moved. This is an important element used for suspense, because until you get close enough you likely won't know what's causing the ruckus.

Acclaim's animation team is also using motion capture in combination with hand-animation for the most accurate look possible. Remember the animations in Turok 2: Seeds of Evil? Those were impressive on the N64, and now Acclaim is working its magic on next-generation systems and it looks good. As noted, the game is still early so there's a lot to be added, but of the few demonstrations we're already impressed.

This guy won't bother players, but that doesn't mean they can't torture him from afar

Sound As always, the development team is not neglecting the sound design. In fact, in the title's unveiling it was a major highlight of the presentation. Andy Brock, the lead sound designer, has gone to extensive lengths to create a brand new sound library. Over the course of the past two years, Andy has recorded thousands of new sounds ranging from dropping bullet shells on numerous surfaces to shooting huge pieces of meat for impact sounds to crushing oranges and Doritos together for a totally gruesome, bone-crunching effect. Needless to say, the sound effects will be nothing but top notch. In fact, in terms of a sound library Turok: Evolution is perhaps one of the most promising titles on the market. Often libraries are bought or generally very small, but with Andy's help, the new Turok will have one of the largest ever created.

Equally important in the design is the soundtrack. The team at Acclaim Studios Cincinnati, which scored the previous Turoks, is hard at work at another moody soundtrack. Creative Director, Dave Dienstbier says the new soundtrack will make fans of the original remember, but also blow them away with all-new material. We only heard a little of the soundtrack, but it sounds very familiar with lingering horns and other orchestral elements.

Outlook We're extremely excited about the new Turok. As fans of the original it seems to be everything we could ask for and more than we expected, especially with the new flying missions and deep multiplayer mode. However, Acclaim still has to prove that missions won't be getting repetitive, and that there is substance to the gameplay -- more than just mindless shooting. What we've experienced has great potential, but as the product is still very early, there is much to be seen.

We're looking forward to E3 2002 where we expect Turok: Evolution to have made exceptional progress. Until then, we're crossing our fingers.